Inmate dies at Parchman penitentiary

PARCHMAN — Mississippi corrections officials say Lessadolla Sowers, who was serving a five-year sentence for voter fraud, has died at the hospital at the state penitentiary at Parchman.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections says in a news release that the 69-year-old Sowers died Sunday. MDOC spokeswoman Grace Fisher says the preliminary cause of death is possible complications from a stroke.

Sower was convicted in Tunica County in 2011 on 10 counts of voter fraud conviction involving phony absentee ballots in the August of 2007 presidential primary.

She was sentenced to five years on each, running concurrently.

Court documents show 17 absentee ballots pulled from sealed ballot boxes listed a Post Office box rented by Sowers. Eight people testified that they had not signed applications or absentee ballots cast in their names.